Wood cow-wheat - Midsummer flower?
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Wood cow-wheat
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Wood cow-wheat
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Harilik härghein
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Not flowering yet in all Estonia but in quite many places already, making your Midsummer chaplet many-coloured. Grows on the verges of forest roads; in wooded meadows it is a quite interesting plant when in full flower with its bright yellow flowers. The common reaction is “what, but the flowers are purple!” But it is the bracts that are purple; they sit in the inflorescence and at the top of the plant. The bright yellow flowers are partly hidden by the bracts. The bracts have essentially the same role as the petals of other flowers – to make the plant more beautiful and more visible to pollinators.
Another interesting characteristic – it is a half-parasite. The roots of the wood cow-wheat are small and poorly developed, but they can fasten on to other larger and stronger plants, getting part of the necessary nutrients from larger shrubs or trees. The host plant has a large, properly developed root system and does not bother about the a small and temporary theft. Because of this the wood cow-wheat usually grows near trees.
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